How to Get a Patent Instant Filing Date

You've invested too much time preparing your patent application to allow last-minute technicalities to ruin things. Getting an instant filing date for your patent application ensures a timely filing with the Patent And Trademark Office. It also guarantees you don't lose any legal rights should the office misplace your application. Check with your patent attorney first, and then use these tips to get an instant filing date.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Plan to use Express Mail as the mail carrier. Get the "Express Mail Post Office To Address" form from the post office.
2. Submit the completed "Express Mail Post Office To Address" form to your postal carrier. Get the receipt showing the Express Mail number of the document.
3. Explain in the letter transmitting the patent application that you are sending it by Express Mail. Identify the Express Mail number at the top of the letter.
4. Check the receipt to make sure it contains the Express Mail document number. Record the date on the receipt because that becomes the actual filing date of the application.
5. Request that the postal clerk stamp the receipt in addition to writing the date on it to ensure the date gets properly recorded. Mail the document. Make a note to describe the application as a "patent-pending" in all future communications with the Patent And Trademark Office.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't use Federal Express, certified mail or even registered mail to send the application in order to get the instant filing date. Don't use private couriers either. Rules for filing patents don't offer any protection for these mail services. Also, using these mail services requires you to wait until the Patent And Trademark Office receives the application in order to consider it filed. You also don't get legal protection for lost applications.